The Tempest
William Shakespeare · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Shakespeare's The Tempest — Prospero's exile and magic, his daughter's romance, and his choice of forgiveness over revenge.
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Page 3 of 9 · 267 summaries in this section
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Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing — Beatrice and Benedick's trick romance, and the slander that nearly destroys Hero and Claudio.
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The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye — Holden Caulfield's days wandering New York, his grief, and his fear of growing up.
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Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five — Billy Pilgrim's time travel, the Dresden firebombing, and the novel's meditation on war and fate.
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Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Keyes's Flowers for Algernon — Charlie's surgery, his rise in intelligence, and Algernon's warning of what is to come.
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Night
Elie Wiesel · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Elie Wiesel's Night — his deportation to Auschwitz, his father's death, and his account of surviving the Holocaust.
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Life of Pi
Yann Martel · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Martel's Life of Pi — Pi's shipwreck, his 227 days at sea with a tiger, and the second story that changes everything.
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King Lear
William Shakespeare · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Shakespeare's King Lear — Lear's fatal division of his kingdom, his daughters' betrayal, and his descent into madness.
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Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night — Viola's disguise, the tangled love triangle it creates, and the comedy's happy resolution.
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East of Eden
John Steinbeck · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Steinbeck's East of Eden — the Trask family's generational conflict, and its retelling of the biblical Cain and Abel story.
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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — the respectable doctor's secret experiment, and the violent alter ego it unleashes.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray — the wish that keeps Dorian young, the portrait that bears his sins, and his tragic end.
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Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Conrad's Heart of Darkness — Marlow's journey up the Congo River, and the horrifying Kurtz he finds at its end.
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The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath — the Joad family's journey from the Dust Bowl to California, and the injustice they find there.
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The Pedestrian
Ray Bradbury · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Bradbury's The Pedestrian — Leonard Mead's solitary walk through a future city, and his arrest by an automated police car.
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The Birthmark
Nathaniel Hawthorne · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Hawthorne's The Birthmark — Aylmer's obsession with his wife's flaw, his fatal experiment, and what her death reveals about perfection.
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The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Poe's The Oval Portrait — the feverish narrator, the painter's obsessive masterpiece, and the wife whose life it drains away.
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The Purloined Letter
Edgar Allan Poe · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Poe's The Purloined Letter — Dupin's psychological pursuit of a stolen letter hidden in plain sight, and how he recovers it.
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue — Dupin's investigation of a locked-room killing, and the shocking non-human culprit he uncovers.
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The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Ernest Hemingway · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Hemingway's The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber — his cowardice, his wife's affair, and the ambiguous shot that kills him.
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The Last Leaf
O. Henry · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of O. Henry's The Last Leaf — Johnsy's fatal superstition, Behrman's secret act of sacrifice, and the twist that reveals it.
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of O. Henry's After Twenty Years — Bob's wait for his old friend Jimmy, and the twist that reveals who the patrolman really was.
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Indian Camp
Ernest Hemingway · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Hemingway's Indian Camp — Nick's father delivering a baby by emergency surgery, and the death he discovers in the same night.
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Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Poe's Ligeia — the narrator's obsession with his dead first wife, his second marriage, and the terrifying transformation that follows.
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The Dead
James Joyce · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Joyce's The Dead — Gabriel's Christmas party, his wife's revelation about a lost love, and the story's meditation on mortality.
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Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men — George and Lennie's dream of a farm, the ranch's outcasts, and the ending that destroys them both.
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Good Country People
Flannery O'Connor · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of O'Connor's Good Country People — Hulga's fake seduction, the Bible salesman's con, and the wooden leg he steals.
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The Pearl
John Steinbeck · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Steinbeck's The Pearl — Kino's discovery, the violence it brings, and why he and Juana throw it back into the sea.
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The Call of the Wild
Jack London · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Jack London's The Call of the Wild — Buck's brutal education in the Klondike, his bond with John Thornton, and his return to the wild.
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Everything That Rises Must Converge
Flannery O'Connor · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge — Julian's bus ride with his mother, the penny that provokes a stranger, and the story's tragic ending.
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